Summary
This article covers the US marketing strategy of Gap, the fashion retailer, as it sought to turn around its business by engaging a new generation of consumers. It explains how the company has reconnected with its brand’s roots and applied its original philosophy to the optimistic and inclusive values of contemporary America. It’s "Big Heart" approach was brought to life by a "Be Bright" campaign, which included the engagement of bloggers, high-profile out-of-home and print ads featuring celebrity spokespeople and support for textile workers in the developing world.

Summary
This article discusses the various local-level marketing and sponsorship programs used by MillerCoors, the brewer, to drive beer sales among millennial Americans. The strategy reflects the local nature of the US beer market, in which there are distinct regional and city-level preferences for specific beer brands. National media remains important but, according to the CMO of MillerCoors, "we have shifted from brand campaigns to campaigning for our brands". A key component of its local marketing is sports sponsorship, with a particular emphasis on the support of local teams, driven by the research insight that sports' fans enjoy drinking beer when watching sport. The brewer's sponsorship properties in this area include college and pro football, baseball, ice hockey, basketball, rodeo and fishing.

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Having announced plans to dedicate 10% of its global marketing budget to mobile, Mondelez International, the snacks company, set an important precedent for major brand owners everywhere. Social TV, video, mobile media and loyalty schemes are currently the main drivers of its activity in this space. And to maximise the return from its investment, the firm is pursuing two main objectives: forming partnerships with major tech companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter, and tapping a new generation of innovative start-ups.

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This report outlines how several major brands are leveraging music and social media to engage consumers, and is based on a panel discussion at the Digital & Music Matters 2013 conference in Singapore. Sony Music has embraced social media, illustrated by campaigns such as "Bring 1D to Me", which drew on real-time data to pick which countries the boy-band One Direction would visit. SingTel, the telecoms group, has successfully worked with K-pop artists to exploit a passion point among its target audience. Similarly, Hewlett-Packard, the electronics company, has leveraged music and social media around Asia, such as via its sponsorship of YouTube's online FanFest music festival which attracted 22 million viewers from ten countries.

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This report focuses on the importance of brands standing out and possessing a point if they are to be successful online, where competition and clutter is immense. It is based on an address by Samsung's vice-president of content and services at the Digital Matters 2013 conference in Singapore. Samsung itself, which is a leading smartphone manufacturer, has forged tie-ups with a variety of content providers in fields from entertainment, lifestyle and gaming to music, learning and reading. The company looks to ally with expert partners in individual countries to develop "hyperlocal" offerings. The report offers a series of guidelines for brand marketers: know who you are and what you do better than anyone else; know what you are not and stay true to your brand's DNA; be discoverable; and become a content curator for time-poor consumers.

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This paper argues that most business-to-business companies need to master the basics of customer experience (CX) management. As a result of interviews with executives at 28 companies, three key best practices in customer experience are described. The paper argues that in order to build stronger ties with clients, B2B firms must develop a client-centric model of account management (examples of this new approach are described). Investment in customer experience is key to building more loyal and long-lasting business relationships.

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This short event report details Procter & Gamble's strategy for its Tide brand, showing how the company is applying learnings from digital media in its communications. For example, the sustainability credentials of the Tide Coldwater sub-brand - with the USP that it washes clothes in cold water - are played up in ads. The brand owner has also taken on lessons from news organisations in its ads for Tide Pods: reacting quickly to news events and reflecting these events in the creative. These spots can run on TV, but they gain earned media support from Procter & Gamble's social media pages. Generally, the brand is incorporating a "newsdesk" in order to react to events in real-time.

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This event report describes the thinking behind a repositioning campaign for Newcastle Brown Ale, a beer brand owned by Heineken USA. The beer sector is highly cluttered and competitive, so the brand owner took the decision to treat Newcastle Brown Ale as a challenger brand. Campaign creative played up the brand's no-nonsense, working-class roots: this beer, ads suggested, was something refreshingly honest in a restrained world. Media used included Facebook, outdoor and then TV ads that used insights generated by Facebook feedback from the original social media ads. The report concludes with three general takeaways for marketers, based on learnings from the Newcastle Brown Ale campaign.

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This report outlines the Asian findings of a global survey of consumers' mobile habits, which indicates that adults are not that different from teenagers in terms of their attitudes and behaviour. It is based on an address by two executives from McCann Worldgroup Asia Pacific at the Festival of Asian Marketing Effectiveness 2013 conference in Shanghai. The survey revealed that mobile consumers showed many of the anxieties, tendencies and aspirations of youth (for example, a 74% majority said their phone helped them "fit in more", while 55% admitted to judging others based on the device they used). Overall, respondents believed that the use of mobile devices improved their human relationships and a majority reported themselves as being more outgoing when using their phone. Within this, the study broke mobile usage down into 16 personalities, split equally between being outgoing (more prevalent among the Chinese) and reserved (more common among the Japanese). The report concludes with the five "Ps" to succeeding in mobile marketing: be personal; be purposeful; respect privacy; be playful; and pack a punch.

Summary
This report focuses on how National Australia Bank (NAB) is utilising social media to engage customers, market its financial services products and drive transactions. It is based on an address by NAB's head of social media and digital integration to the Internet Show Asia 2013 conference. NAB has added consumer reviews and ratings of its credit cards to its official website, helping to propel social commerce and enable the bank to enhance its services. It has also partnered with a start-up marketing company to enable small-and-medium-sized businesses accept social payments. Equally, NAB has established its first social media command centre to keep track of its brand, undertake social listening and monitor relevant online trends.